The Joestar Family Tree: Every Generation in Both Universes (Parts 1–9)

The short answer

Why there are two family trees

Parts 1 to 6 tell one continuous story. The Joestars fight DIO across a century, from Victorian England to 2011, and every JoJo descends from Jonathan or, in Giorno's case, from his body.

Steel Ball Run, Part 7, starts over in a new universe. It has its own Joestar family, beginning with Johnny Joestar. JoJolion and The JOJOLands continue that second family, and it marries into a new Higashikata family along the way.

How to read the trees

• Filled boxes are JoJos, colored by their Part.
• Solid boxes are characters in the JoJodle roster: click one to open their page. Dashed boxes are relatives who are not in the roster.
• Horizontal lines join couples. Children hang below them. Dashed lines mark adoptions, an affair and the fusion that created Gappy.

The original Joestar family (Parts 1–6)

Here is the whole first family, from George Joestar I down to Jolyne, with DIO's branch on the left. JoJos are the filled boxes.

George Joestar I and Mary

The family begins with George Joestar I and his wife Mary Joestar. Their son is Jonathan Joestar. George also takes in Dio Brando, the son of Dario Brando, and raises him alongside Jonathan.

Jonathan and Erina

Jonathan marries Erina Joestar, and their son is George Joestar II. Jonathan does not live to see him grow up, and his body ends up in DIO's hands, which matters three Parts later.

George II and Lisa Lisa

George Joestar II marries Elizabeth Joestar, better known as Lisa Lisa. Their son is Joseph Joestar, the hero of Part 2, who learns the Ripple from his own mother without knowing it at first. Lisa Lisa was herself raised by the Ripple master Straizo, who adopted her.

Joseph, Suzi Q and Tomoko

Joseph marries Suzi Q. Their daughter is Holy Kujo. Joseph also has a son, Josuke Higashikata, from an affair with Tomoko Higashikata, the daughter of Ryohei Higashikata. Later, Joseph and Suzi Q adopt the invisible baby Shizuka Joestar.

Why Josuke is Jotaro's uncle

Josuke is Holy's half-brother, which makes him Jotaro's uncle, even though he is the younger of the two by more than a decade.

Holy and Sadao Kujo

Holy marries Sadao Kujo, and the family name changes to Kujo. Their son is Jotaro Kujo, Joseph's grandson and the hero of Part 3, who sets out to save his mother.

Jotaro and Jolyne

Jotaro's daughter is Jolyne Cujoh, the hero of Part 6. Her mother is never named. With Jolyne, the first family reaches its 7th generation, counting George Joestar I as the first.

DIO's sons

After Part 1, DIO survives by taking Jonathan's body as his own. Four sons are born from that body, so all of them are, by blood, partly Joestar.

Giorno Giovanna

Giorno Giovanna, the hero of Part 5, was born Haruno Shiobana to a Japanese mother. DIO is his father, but because DIO was using Jonathan's body, Giorno carries Jonathan's genes. The JoJo Wiki lists George Joestar II as his half-brother.

Donatello Versus, Ungalo and Rikiel

Three more of DIO's sons appear in Stone Ocean: Donatello Versus, Ungalo and Rikiel. All three end up fighting Jolyne, who is distantly related to them through Jonathan.

Half-brothers of George Joestar II

Because the sons share Jonathan's genes, the JoJo Wiki lists them as half-brothers of George Joestar II, Jonathan's son. That makes Joseph their half-nephew, even though he was born decades before any of them.

DIO's four sons in the JoJodle roster.

Son	Part	Stand
Giorno Giovanna	5	Gold Experience
Donatello Versus	6	Under World
Ungalo	6	Bohemian Rhapsody
Rikiel	6	Sky High

The new Joestar family (Parts 7–9)

The second family starts with Johnny Joestar and runs through JoJolion to The JOJOLands. Most of its members between Johnny and Part 9 appear only briefly or in flashbacks, so few are in our roster.

Johnny's family

Johnny Joestar is the son of George Joestar II and Anne Joestar, with an older brother, Nicholas. He marries Rina Higashikata, a daughter of Norisuke Higashikata I, which ties the Joestars to the Higashikata family for good.

George III, Joseph and Suzi Q

Johnny's son, George Joestar III, marries Elizabeth Joestar. Their son is a new Joseph Joestar, who marries a new Suzi Q. They have two daughters: Holy Joestar-Kira and Barbara Ann Joestar.

Kira, Kei and Gappy

Holy marries Yoshiteru Kira. Their children are Yoshikage Kira and Kei Nijimura. Yoshikage Kira is later fused with Josefumi Kujo, and the young man who emerges is Josuke Higashikata (Gappy), the JoJolion hero.

Two families in one person

Because Gappy is half Yoshikage Kira, Kei is his sister on that side, and he is descended from Johnny. The other half, Josefumi, comes from an unrelated Kujo family.

Jodio and Dragona

Barbara Ann Joestar is the mother of Dragona Joestar and Jodio Joestar, the Part 9 JoJo. Their father is unnamed. The family lived in Atlantic City before moving to Honolulu when Jodio was eleven. Kira and Kei are their cousins.

The Higashikata family

JoJolion is built around the Higashikata family, and it is linked to the Joestars through Johnny's marriage to Rina Higashikata.

Four Norisukes

The family head's name passes down four generations: Norisuke I, II, III and IV. Norisuke Higashikata III and Norisuke Higashikata IV both appear in JoJolion.

The repeated name makes the main line easy to follow. The tree runs straight from Norisuke I to Norisuke IV, father to son, and every other branch of the family hangs off that line.

Norisuke IV's children

Norisuke IV and his former wife Kaato Higashikata have four children: Jobin Higashikata, Hato Higashikata, Joshu Higashikata and Daiya Higashikata. Jobin and Mitsuba Higashikata are the parents of Tsurugi Higashikata.

How the two families are related

Johnny's wife, Rina, was a daughter of Norisuke Higashikata I. So every descendant of Johnny, from George Joestar III down to Kira, Kei, Dragona and Jodio, also descends from the Higashikatas.

That gives Gappy's adoption a twist. When Norisuke IV takes him in, he is taking in a distant relative: through Kira, Gappy shares Norisuke I as an ancestor with the rest of the Higashikata household.

The nine JoJos, one by one

Each JoJo's family shapes their Part. Here is what the trees mean for every one of them.

Jonathan Joestar (Part 1)

Jonathan loses his mother, Mary, in a carriage accident when he is a baby. The same accident brings Dio Brando into the house, because George believes Dio's father saved his life. Jonathan and Dio grow up as adoptive brothers and rivals.

Joseph Joestar (Part 2)

Joseph never knows his parents growing up. His father, George II, is killed by one of Dio's surviving zombies; his mother kills the zombie and goes into hiding. Joseph is raised by his grandmother Erina, with help from Speedwagon.

Jotaro Kujo (Part 3)

Jotaro's journey to Egypt is a family rescue. When DIO returns, his mother Holy develops a Stand she cannot control, and it makes her seriously ill. Jotaro, his grandfather Joseph and their allies set out to defeat DIO and save her.

Josuke Higashikata (Part 4)

Josuke grows up in Morioh with his mother, Tomoko, and his grandfather Ryohei, a police officer. Part 4 begins when Jotaro arrives to tell him who his father is. Early in the Part, Ryohei is killed by the Stand user Anjuro Katagiri.

Giorno Giovanna (Part 5)

Giorno, born Haruno Shiobana, has an unhappy childhood: a neglectful mother and an abusive stepfather. He knows little about his real father, DIO, and nothing about the Joestar body DIO was using.

Jolyne Cujoh (Part 6)

Jolyne is framed and sent to prison in Florida, where she awakens her Stand, Stone Free. When her father Jotaro is attacked and his memory and Stand are stolen as discs, getting them back becomes her goal.

Johnny Joestar (Part 7)

Johnny grows up in the shadow of his older brother Nicholas, whom their father clearly favors. Nicholas dies in a riding accident that Johnny blames himself for. Years later, Johnny marries Rina Higashikata and starts the family that leads to JoJolion.

Josuke “Gappy” Higashikata (Part 8)

Gappy wakes with no memory, and JoJolion is his search for who he is. The answer is a family tree in itself: he is the fusion of Yoshikage Kira and Josefumi Kujo, and Kei Nijimura, the Higashikata housekeeper, turns out to be Kira's younger sister.

Jodio Joestar (Part 9)

Jodio is Barbara Ann Joestar's younger child and Dragona's younger brother. The family moved from Atlantic City to Honolulu when he was eleven, and The JOJOLands follows the two siblings as they work for a criminal gang.

Villains in the family

The family trees also hold several of the series' villains. Some are related to the JoJos by marriage or adoption, others by blood.

• Dio Brando: Jonathan's adoptive brother, and later the father of four sons through Jonathan's body.
• Donatello Versus, Ungalo and Rikiel: DIO's sons, who fight Jolyne in Stone Ocean.

Every JoJo at a glance

Here are all nine JoJos with their universe, their place in the family and their Stand.

Stands from JoJodle's character data. Jonathan and Joseph are filed under Parts 1 and 2, before Stands, so their Ripple is listed instead.

JoJo	Part	Universe	Place in the family	Stand
Jonathan Joestar	1	Original	Son of George Joestar I; the first JoJo	None (Ripple)
Joseph Joestar	2	Original	Jonathan's grandson	None (Ripple)
Jotaro Kujo	3	Original	Joseph's grandson; Jonathan's great-great-grandson	Star Platinum
Josuke Higashikata	4	Original	Joseph's son; Jotaro's uncle	Crazy Diamond
Giorno Giovanna	5	Original	DIO's son, conceived with Jonathan's body	Gold Experience
Jolyne Cujoh	6	Original	Jotaro's daughter	Stone Free
Johnny Joestar	7	New	Son of George Joestar II; the new universe's first JoJo	Tusk
Josuke Higashikata (Gappy)	8	New	Fusion of Yoshikage Kira (Johnny's great-great-grandson) and Josefumi Kujo	Soft & Wet
Jodio Joestar	9	New	Johnny's great-great-grandson	November Rain

Only four of the nine JoJos are born with the Joestar surname: Jonathan, Joseph, Johnny and Jodio. The others carry Kujo, Higashikata or Giovanna, yet each one still earns the JoJo nickname from the sounds of their name.

Every JoJo with a Stand in our roster, all seven of them, has a Close-Range Stand. Jonathan has none, and Joseph is filed under Part 2, before Stands appear in the series.

The family through the years

Each Part jumps forward to the next generation, so the setting moves with the family. This is where and when every JoJo's story takes place.

Settings from the JoJo Wiki's Part pages; years are when each Part was serialized.

Part	JoJo	Setting	Published
1	Jonathan Joestar	Late 19th-century England	1987
2	Joseph Joestar	1938–39, from New York to Europe	1987–1989
3	Jotaro Kujo	Late 1980s, a journey from Japan to Egypt	1989–1992
4	Josuke Higashikata	1999, the Japanese town of Morioh	1992–1995
5	Giorno Giovanna	2001, Italy	1995–1999
6	Jolyne Cujoh	2011, a prison in Florida	2000–2003
7	Johnny Joestar	1890, a horse race across the United States	2004–2011
8	Josuke Higashikata (Gappy)	2011, an alternate Morioh	2011–2021
9	Jodio Joestar	The early 2020s, Hawaii	2023–

The first family covers more than a century, from Jonathan's Victorian childhood to Jolyne in 2011. The second jumps from Johnny in 1890 straight to his descendants in 2011 and the 2020s, so most of the generations in between appear only in flashbacks and family trees.

Common mix-ups

A few relationships trip up almost every new reader. Here they are, straightened out.

Dio is family, but not by blood

Dio Brando is Jonathan's adoptive brother: George Joestar I took him in after Dio's father, Dario, died. He has no Joestar blood of his own. His sons do, because they come from Jonathan's body.

Shizuka is adopted

Shizuka Joestar carries the family name, but Joseph found her as an invisible baby in Part 4 and adopted her. She is not related to Josuke or Jotaro by blood.

Lisa Lisa's own family

Lisa Lisa, born Elizabeth, was adopted and trained by the Ripple master Straizo before she married George Joestar II. That makes Straizo, who turns villain at the start of Part 2, a kind of adoptive grandfather to Joseph.

Kujo, Cujoh and Higashikata

Holy takes her husband's name, Kujo, so Jotaro is a Kujo. Jolyne's surname is the same Japanese name, written Cujoh in her official English name. Josuke grows up with his mother's name, Higashikata, which JoJolion later gives to a whole different family.

Who counts as a Joestar?

The family name changes often: Kujo, Higashikata, Giovanna, Cujoh. What stays the same is the blood, and the series marks it in one way above all.

The star birthmark

Members of the Joestar bloodline have a star-shaped birthmark. The JoJo Wiki notes it on characters as different as Giorno, Gappy and Jodio, and it is the series' shorthand for “this person is a Joestar”.

Giorno: a Joestar by body

Giorno is the clearest edge case. His father is DIO, but his genes come from Jonathan's body, and he has the birthmark. He is usually counted as a JoJo and a Joestar.

Gappy: half a Joestar

Gappy is half Yoshikage Kira, a Joestar descendant, and half Josefumi Kujo, who is not. He has the star birthmark, on his left shoulder, and carries the Higashikata name by adoption.

Josuke: a Joestar with his mother's name

Part 4's Josuke grows up as a Higashikata, his mother's family name, and only meets his father, Joseph, as a teenager. He is still Joseph's son, and the fourth JoJo.

• Joestar by blood: Jonathan, Joseph, Jotaro, Josuke, Jolyne, Johnny and Jodio.
• Joestar through a body: Giorno and DIO's other sons.
• Joestar by half: Gappy, through Yoshikage Kira.
• Joestar by adoption: Shizuka.

Names that return in the new universe

The new universe borrows names from the old one, but gives them to different people. This is the full list from the two trees:

Some echoes go deeper than a name. In both universes a George Joestar II stands right next to the first JoJo, a Joseph marries a Suzi Q, and a woman named Holy falls seriously ill.

So when you read about a Joseph Joestar, a Holy or a Yoshikage Kira, check the Part first. A character from Parts 1 to 6 and one from Parts 7 to 9 with the same name are never the same person, even when their place in the family looks almost identical.

How far each JoJo is from the first

Counting generations from the first JoJo of each universe shows how the families spread out. Giorno counts as Jonathan's son, since he was conceived with Jonathan's body.

Jolyne is the furthest from her universe's first JoJo, five generations after Jonathan. In the new universe, Gappy and Jodio are both four generations after Johnny: through Kira, they are cousins.

Frequently asked questions